


Middle Earth Industrial Technology Knowledge Sharing Platform

by febbb



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25447087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/febbb/pseuds/febbb
Summary: How Curufin and his son saved the middle earth with technology.
Relationships: Beren Erchamion/Lúthien Tinúviel
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	Middle Earth Industrial Technology Knowledge Sharing Platform

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [[精灵宝钻/恶搞向？]中土工业技术交流平台](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24875500) by [bamboos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamboos/pseuds/bamboos). 



1

"Middle Earth Industrial Technology Knowledge Sharing Platform." Finrod read.

"Yes." Celebrimbor, who submitted the plan, said cheerfully, "My father and I improved the Palantir-"

"Mostly you." Curufin added, standing aside with arms crossed.

"-Apart from long-distance communication, now it can also record videos or play certain video clips. So that smiths from all across Middle Earth can communicate with each other and improve their technology. I heard the dwarf smiths at Uncle Caranthir's land master a casting technique that can up the hardness of swords by a good 20%..."

"That's good." Finrod says excitedly. Unlike Turgon, he has always been very keen to establish connections with other races, "But are they willing to share these skills? I know dwarves can be very stubborn sometimes."

"We can share our skills in exchange."

"If they learnt from us but refuse to show us theirs, what then?" Curufin threw cold water on his son.

"Don't be so pessimistic, cousin dear. This might be solved by technical means," Finrod suggested. "Say, one can only browse others' technique when certain conditions are met, or only if he had uploaded some technique correspondingly...is it feasible?"

Curufin mused: "Worth give it a try." He said; then the father and son rushed back to the workshop with a newly ignited enthusiasm for technique.

2

As a by-product, Curufin accidentally invented the earliest video-on-demand platform in Middle Earth.

Of course, that's another story to tell.

3

The new palantir is no longer a ball.

Crystal balls break too easily. After 3 months of research, Curufin and Celebrimbor transformed it into a crystal tablet.

And the new Palan-pad quickly spread to every corner of Middle-earth.

At a time when war might break out any minute, no lord wouldn't have a bunch of smiths. Even Thingol, who had always had little good to say about the Feanorians, gave in to the repeated requests from Doriath technicians. In the end, Gondolin was the last to get the tablet. This city is so well hidden that no nobody how to send a message in. It was Turgon who somehow heard the news and troubled the Eagles to be his messager.

"Will you at least give us a way to reach you?" Fingon complained through the tablet. "It seems that you at least know something about us, but we know nothing about your city."

"It's only safe this way. If you know where Gondolin is, it's not far from the day when Morgorth knows, too.", Turgon says, "And, now you have a way to reach us, don't you?"

"It's the Middle Earth Industrial Technology Knowledge Sharing Platform," Curufin cut in, "it's not for you to chit-chat."

"Bite me." Turgon retort.

Curufin, the system admin, muted him.

4

Then, Beren arrived in Nagorthrond and showed his ring.

...

One autumn evening, Felagund and Beren set off with ten companions.

Nagorthrond forsoke their king; Celegorm and Curufin who had more or less pushed for all these behind the scene never showed up. But when Finrod walked to the gate, he saw that there was someone waiting for him - Celebrimbor. Shamefully, he handed a Palan-pad of to Finrod.

"This is my own tablet, one with admin control. It can connect to any palan-pad in Middle-earth." He whispered, "It probably can't do much, but I hope it might be of some help to you."

So Finrod and his team dressed up as half-orcs, carrying the a tablet, and were eventually brought before the throne of Sauron. There, Sauron and Finrod competed the power of chanting; when Sauron just began to sing, the tablet in Finrod's pocket lit up. He didn't notice it himself, but Beren did, and pulled out the tablet to put the call through.

From the tablet came Maglor' singing voice, and - Daeron's and Luthien's.

5

Sauron escaped in defeat.

Some of his war wolves fled, and some led by Draugluin tried to fight back； Finrod and his team fought hard, killing them all and marched on to Angband.

At the foot of the Iron Throne in Angband, Luthien sang Morgoth to sleep and Beren pulled out Angrist to dig out a Silmaril from the iron crown. At this moment a thought struck him, that he wanted to go beyond his oath and bring all three Feanor's gems out of Angband. But Finrod stopped him. "If Morgoth wakes up and finds that all three stones are missing, he will attack us in great anger, and we will not be quick enough to get out of Angband to safety. He will catch us and get back all three Silmarils."

  
"That's not a problem." A voice came from the tablet, "We now have three of the most powerful elf singers - counting you, three and a half; you can make half a singer. You can leave the tablet here and take turns singing to Morgoth."

"Curufin?" Finrod asked in surprise, eyes locking on to the figure on the tablet.

"Yeah, it's me. Who else do you think linked you to Maglor and Daeron?" Curufin said, "Cut the crap; can you sing a lullaby in turns or not?"

"...I think it's worth trying." it was Maglor who finally broke the embarrassing silence.

6

So they left Angband with three Silmarils and headed to the nearest elven land - Fingon's Hithlum. Morgoth was still sleeping under the Iron Throne, the tablet of Celebrimbor right beside his head. When the Silmarils passed through the gates of Angband, Morgoth shuddered in his sleep, and the whole army of Angband shook in their sleep as well.

Maglor sang a song of sleep, putting him back to his dreams. He fell asleep again.

After Finrod and the others escaped from Angband, they wasted no time in running towards Hithlum's stronghold. On their way, they seemed to feel a shadow rising from Angband from behind: Morgoth was about to wake up from his sleep.

Daeron sang of the Doriath Forest, filled with mystery and silence, urging him to sleep. And Morgoth fell asleep again.

When he was about to wake up, Luthien's power was restored. So she wielded the power of her Maiar bloodline to lure him back to sleep.

Morgos fell asleep again.

……

7

Almost all of Hithlum's troops came out and greeted them. Fingon personally led the team, while Maedhros was riding here day and night from Himring. Beren could not wait to bring a Silmaril back to Thingol, but both Fingon and Finrod stopped him.

"You know the Oath of the sons of Feanor for the Silmarils. If you bring them to Doriath, it would be as if you brought the Doom of Mandos to the land that is yet peaceful. It was Thingol's request, but it was not the best fate for Doriath, for himself, and for Princess Luthien.” Fingon tried to persuade him, “You just have to wait here for a few more days, after Maedhros retrieve the Silmarils and fulfill the Oath of his family."

"I had heard about that Oath." Beren replied. "That is the reason of my worries. If he laid hands on the Silmarils, he might not want to give me back the one that is rightfully mine."

But Finrod also persuaded him to wait for Maedhros. Out of gratitude to him, Beren chose to wait. Three days later, when Morgoth finally woke up from his sleep, Maedhros arrived in Hithlum after a long ride. He looked travel-stained after days of sleepless journey, and the rage and roar from Angband that shook the whole earth cast a shadow of fear on everyone. But when Maedhros held out his left hand and took the three Silmarils, his face lit up with lightness and joy that made him look as young as the days when Two Trees still shone.

"You do have the right to one Silmaril, that I will not deny." He answered Beren on the wall of Hithlum, gazing back and forth between the shadow of Angband and the direction of Doriath, as if carefully pondering something in his heart, "And now, our Oath is fulfilled. I have no right to give away any of my father's creations, but as his eldest son, I could at least lend you one of the Silmaril for now. However, you saw how furious Morgoth was after losing the three gems. He could sense one of them is in Doriath, and he would attack Doriath with the same furious force. Melian's belt might stop the Orc army, but not a fallen Valar."

"So, what should I do?" Beren asked. "I don't want to bring disaster to my beloved's hometown, but if I don't bring a Silmaril to the king of Doriath, I cannot be with her! I can stand neither of these."

"You can always ask Luthien to sneak out of the forest and run away with with you." Celegorm, who was listening in, suggested.

"Shut up!" said Daeron, who was also listening in.

Luthien, also listening in, seemed to be very excited by the idea.

"...Any of you remember that this is just an industrial technology exchange platform??" Curufin asked. No one deigned to answer him.

8

In the end, Beren chose to bring a Silmaril back to Doriath.

Morgoth woke up and found all three Silmarils stolen; losing his mind over fury, he ordered all his troops to attack the elven defense at all cost, and the elves unfortunately had little time to prepare for battle. It made their defense extremely difficult.

Yet what's fortunate was that, in his anger, Morgoth had not enough time nor sense to lay out any of his tricks, neither did he plan for alienation and betrayal. This allowed Maedhros to find time between battle to plan a counterattack. They still have forces left: the troops of men, dwarves, of Gondolin and Nargothrond that are not yet fully engaged. Through Curufin's tablet, he tried to connect all the forces that can be reached and united the entire Beleriand's still-standing force into an alliance.

Moreover, facing a dark army willing to attack at all cost, Thingol finally realized that, with a Silmaril at hand, he would not be able to sit aside in disasters that befell Middle-earth as he used to this time. He joined the Union of Maedhros very reluctantly.

9

The Union of Maedhros won.

10

"Shoot." Celebrimbor said, placing the tablet on a special bracket for videoing, "Nagothrond, Celebrimbor. Technology theme: Binding spell, variant 1340-6."

Behind him, squatted Morgoth in a heavily guarded cage. Every inch of the three-tiered cage railing is engraved with shiny spells, and each letter of the spell shone the light of the Silmarils - light that can prevent any dark creature from altering or removing the binding spell, even Morgoth himself. He had longed for the light of the Silmarils, and now he was trapped by it.

Celebrimbor turned around and began to write the spells on a whiteboard without looking at Morgoth - when you went through the 1st variant of the binding spell to the 1340th, Morgoth has really become some nobody that one is too used to seeing, nothing to make a fuss about. The sailors of Cirdan have not yet worked out a guaranteed method to transport Morgoth back to Valinor safely, and Celebrimbor thought perhaps by the time they found a safe sails road, there might already be 1900 variants of the binding spell.

  
Well, in short, his original goal was to promote technological advancement through industrial and technological exchanges of knowledge, in order to make Nargothrond stronger. This was indeed achieved. 

Despite the "how" part turned out to be a bit unusual.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a translation; the original work in Chinese is written by bamboos - the AO3 link is attached in front; another link is here: http://qinzhuying.lofter.com/post/24f11c_12e53f28c.  
> If anyone likes this piece as I do, feel free to comment & give kudos to her original post on AO3!


End file.
